


Fear Resides in the Blue

by im_frickin_dead_bro



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Abuse, Bianca is alive, High School AU, I like making people siblings when they actually aren’t, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Luke is a jerk, M/M, More tags to be added, Multi, No Gods, Octavian isn’t such a dick (he’s still a dick though), Percy is sad, because i have no idea what i’m doing, drug deals, everyone likes hurting percy, i have no idea what the title is, like Piper and Leo are siblings, nico is happy, percy has secrets
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-30
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:27:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 12,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26197864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/im_frickin_dead_bro/pseuds/im_frickin_dead_bro
Summary: I don’t know what to do for the summary. I suck at them. But I’ll try.Secrets are something everyone has. They may be small secrets or ones that cause things to break. Secrets could be a way someone tries to hide their demons and fears.Nico has secrets, yes, but none of them are really life-changing. His friend is a different story.He has secrets that he never wished or intended to share. Just something he had to live with until he could finally escape them. But when Nico and his friends find out about this secret, what would that entail for their green eyed friend?
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano, Hazel Levesque/Leo Valdez/Frank Zhang, Luke Castellan/Percy Jackson, Nico di Angelo/Percy Jackson, Piper McLean/Jason Grace
Comments: 8
Kudos: 93





	1. Chapter One

Nico wasn’t the type of person that would get himself into the stupid drama of his friends. He was in high school and he just didn’t have the mind to care about that kind of thing. 

His group of friends weren’t popular or anything, but most people in the school knew their names at least. That’s what happens when you have Piper McLean and Jason Grace as friends. They tend to get a lot of attention from students even if they wished they could stay in the shadows. To everyone else, people only knew Nico’s name because of them. It’s almost the same with Percy, Leo, Annabeth, Frank, his half-sister Hazel, and Reyna. They were a group of sorts and there wasn’t really ever a dull moment.

Nico did have friends outside of that group and mostly talked to them in classes. It wasn’t that he liked this group more than his other friends, he had just known them longer and were closer to them than anyone else.

Hazel would keep pouting at him though and giving Nico the puppy face and Nico didn’t know how long he could actually pretend to not like the idea of Frank dating his sister. Of course, Nico wanted Hazel to be happy and he knew Frank did that. He liked Frank (they were friends, how could he not?) so Nico only kept pretending to get under their skin. It was amusing to watch and Nico would just grin when Hazel sighed and looked away from him.

“Haze,” he tried to get her attention. She looked at him with hopeful eyes that just made Nico smile. “Go get him.”

Hazel’s golden eyes practically lit up as she jumped and ran across the table to tackle Frank into a big hug and shyly kissed his cheek. Nico smiled and decided to intervene in his other friends’ conversation.

“I’m just saying, Peter is a thousand times better than Scott!”

“No way! He is basically a  _ spider _ ! An ant is far more superior!” Annabeth argued with Leo.

“Well, Aquaman is hotter than both of them so your arguments are invalid,” Nico told them. Leo and Annabeth gaped at him.

“He’s not even Marvel!” they shouted simultaneously.

“And that’s why I chose him.” Nico grinned at their grumpy faces as they mumbled about how they were talking about being ‘better’ not ‘hotter’. “I don’t care. Have you seen him? He’s like a fucking god.”

Leo and Annabeth shared a look before nodding. “That we can agree on.”

“Exactly. Now what’s wrong with Mr. Mopey over there?” Nico nodded his head to Percy’s direction who was staring at his plate with a blank look. He had his head on his hands and he was sitting completely still and slightly hunched over.

“He told me he didn’t get enough sleep last night and he had a huge test this morning,” Annabeth sighed. Nico looked at Percy again and could see how bad he needed sleep. Sometimes Percy wouldn’t sleep, claiming to have insomnia and would go days like that. He assured his friends that it was just the tests that were kicking his ass.

“He needs to sleep more. Maybe we could knock him out and he’d be sent to the nurse so he could sleep,” Nico suggested. Leo nodded along, the three of them still looking at Percy.

Almost as if he could feel the gazes on him, his eyes glanced at them and he frowned. “What?”

The three friends shook their heads and told Percy various ‘Nothing’s’ and they went about their lunch.

After about five minutes, Nico looked over to where Percy was seated only to frown and look around the cafeteria for his friend. “Where’d Percy go?”

Jason turned to him and shrugged. “He said he had to meet someone and quickly got up and left. He said he’d be right back...like last time.

Nico slowly nodded his head. That had been happening often as well. Percy would just disappear and no one would see him until the next class. They didn’t know what Percy did when he left or who he was meeting with, but it didn’t seem that great. In class, he would always have this weird look on his face and he would look paler, like he had just seen a ghost.

“Do you think he’ll ever tell us about his secret meetings?”

Jason sighed and glanced sadly at the cafeteria doors. “I would like to say he would...but I’m not too sure. It seems important to him because he never lets us talk him out of going.”

Nico ran a hand through his dark hair. “I hope he isn’t getting himself into trouble again. Not after what happened with Ethan and Alabaster.” Piper looked at Nico and shivered at just thinking of it. Nico couldn’t blame her, it was a bad time of their middle school lives. Only four years ago in seventh grade.

Ethan and Alabaster were Percy’s best friends growing up. They lived a couple blocks from Percy and they were almost inseparable. Ethan and Alabaster started to get into a lot of trouble and started picking up drugs in middle school. Percy didn’t do any of that with them...at least at first. They would ask and Percy would say no. No one knows what changed, but suddenly Percy could be found with Ethan and Alabaster at the gate outside the school where students would call ‘Smoker’s Corner’. The name had started a long time ago and it lives up to its name. Smokers and druggies would all be there or somewhere nearby after school or sometimes before school.

Percy didn’t do anything really bad, he only really smoked weed. He told Nico it was to get his mind off things. Nico understood that and never actually told him to stop. Until he started going to school high as a kite and his friends almost begged him to stop doing it before and during school. They didn’t want him to get in trouble.

Soon enough, Ethan and Alabaster introduced Percy to more people and more things and got more touchy-feely with him. Percy confided in their little group and Piper along with Annabeth immediately said that he shouldn’t hang out with them anymore. Percy seemed to have stopped for a short time before he was found with Ethan and Alabaster on either side of him with one of the boys having an arm around his waist or his shoulders. 

Percy never looked comfortable with that arrangement, but when he told his friends ‘I’m fine’ they hesitantly took a step back. That was, until they saw the three of them arguing and getting close to actual fist-fighting that Jason and Annabeth stood up and got Percy out of there.

The sea-green eyed boy finally told them that Ethan and Alabaster had been forcing Percy to smoke and skip school and walk with them in halls. He told his friends that he couldn’t tell them because Ethan and Alabaster had threatened to hurt his friends.

To say the group was mad was an understatement. They were ready to kill, but the look on Percy’s face deflated them and they all ended up having a sleep-over at Nico and Hazel’s house.

Ethan and Alabaster weren’t seen from again. Some say they had been expelled while others claim they left the state. No one really knows nor cares that much. Nico knew Percy didn’t care about it.

“He’s been acting weird lately,” Reyna told the group of friends. “He’s been very distant these past couple of weeks.”

“He’s been hanging out with Luke,” Annabeth sighed. Nico frowned at her. 

“Who?”

Annabeth sighed again and put her long blonde hair in a ponytail. “Luke Castellan was Percy and my friend back in elementary school. It was before we met you and Thalia was still going here. We were almost inseparable and it didn’t help that we had the same class. Well, long story short, Luke’s back and Percy has been hanging out with him again.”

“And you?”

Annabeth shrugged. “I can talk to him outside of school, it’s no big deal. Percy just wants to catch up with him, he’ll be back to his crazy self soon enough.”

“I hope so,” Jason replied. “I need my bro back.”

“You’ve been awfully quiet, Leo.” Leo looked up, startled and frowned.

“What? I’m just...feeling out of it today.” Nico shared a look with Hazel before his half-sister moved and hugged Leo.

“If you need anything, we’ll be here. Just talk to us if you want, okay?” Leo’s ears and cheeks got pink and he silently nods.

Nico still couldn’t shake the feeling that something big was going to happen. And he wasn’t going to like it.  
  
  



	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i honestly have no idea about this chapter and i might have a vague idea of what’s going to start happening? Like...the spicy stuff? Maybe...? Meh..

The next day at lunch was to say...awkward. Or maybe weird was the correct word. It started out normal. Percy was finally acting more like his regular bubbly self and joked with Leo about Jason’s glasses that keep sliding down his nose.

Until Percy looked up and his face went blank. “Oh, shit.” He looked at Nico before running behind him. Nico blinked before turning his head to look at the teen. 

“Perce, what are you doing?”

“Hiding,” he whispered back and gently grabbed onto Nico’s shoulders. He could barely feel Percy’s hands as he ducked down more to hide his messy hair behind Nico’s back.

“PERCY JACKSON!” Percy winced as some guy with blonde hair and a scar on his cheek yelled. The cafeteria went silent until the blonde guy told him off and people began talking again...though very slowly.

“He’s over here, Luke!” Annabeth yelled. Percy looked at the blonde girl in betrayal.

“Annabeth, why?” he wailed as Luke walked over to their table. Nico took another look at Percy before Luke finally got to the table. “It was an accident!” Percy said immediately.

“That couldn’t have been an accident.” Luke countered. 

Percy opened his mouth before he closed it again. “Okay, you’re right. I did it on purpose, but you should’ve seen your face!”

Nico and Hazel awkwardly shared a look. They didn’t know what was going on in the slightest. They didn’t know if their friend was in some kind of trouble with some bad people or the like.

“Payback time, Perce.” Percy's face went pale and he shook his head violently.

Nico turned around again to look at his friend. “Is everything okay with you two?” Nico whispered.

Percy smiled at Nico and nodded. “Yeah. I’m okay, promise.”

Nico hesitantly smiled back before Percy pushed himself away from Nico and slowly stepped up to look. Nico glanced at Annabeth, but she was grinning widely.

Luke’s grin was wide as Percy stopped and suddenly ducked right as Luke made a grab for him. Jason and Nico both tensed, getting ready to defend their friend. 

“Annabeth, what the hell is going on?” Jason hissed in her ear.

“It’s just something we came up with a long time ago for payback. Don’t worry, no one gets hurt. Just watch.” Annabeth turned her head to watch once more. “Percy, you aren’t supposed to duck!”

“Reflexes,” he apologised and stood up straight. This time, Luke did grab Percy and pulled him over his shoulder before stepping closer to the table and allowing Percy to fall on it. “Ow,” he whispered before Luke leaned down with his mouth to Percy’s ear.

Nico and the others all leaned in to try and hear what was being said, but they couldn’t hear anything. They could only watch as Percy’s face got red and his expression changed from disbelief to horror then to looking very uncomfortable. Luke got up laughing, before poking Percy then started tickling him.

“Wa-wait! Luke, stop!” he laughed and tried to free himself. “Luke...Lukey, please!”

Suddenly they both stopped laughing and moving before staring at each other with an unreadable expression. Nico looked to Annabeth to try and get a clue to why they stopped so suddenly, but she seemed just as confused.

“Yeah, okay. I’ll just… I’m gonna go.” Percy nodded and Luke released him before leaving the cafeteria. The dark haired boy sighed and pushed himself into a sitting position on the table, an arm wrapped around his stomach.

“So what did you do, Perce?” Percy looked toward Leo with a wide smile. He stuffed his hand into his pocket and pulled out some cash. 

“Stole some of his money.” Leo’s eyes widened as he took the money from Percy. 

“Shit, dude. And you got caught?”

Percy rolled his eyes. “Of course I did. But he let me keep it so it’s good.”

Leo and Percy got stuck in a conversation of what they could do with the money, bringing up impossible subjects like raiding the government with fake personal information or even using it to buy scraps to create a rocket and move to Pluto.

“Why Pluto?” Hazel asked, intrigued. Nico knew she always had a bit of an obsession with the planet Pluto. She got really pissed when it was declared a dwarf planet.

“Because Pluto is fucking awesome and scientists are rude for casting it out. So we’ll move so we can be castaways with it.” Percy told her with bright green eyes.

Hazel smiled widely, “then I am completely on board with this plan. When do we start?”

Percy and Leo shared a look. “Meet us at me and Piper’s house tomorrow night at seven,” Leo replied with a mischievous grin.

“Damn, I was going to go over tomorrow,” Jason sighed. Leo wrinkled his nose in disgust and slightly shoved Jason away from him.

“Gross, you can fuck my sister any other day!”

“Leo!” Piper went red and looked anywhere except that table.

Nico shook his head like he was absolutely done with his friends’ shit. He caught Frank’s expression, who was looking at Percy. Nico followed his gaze to see Percy with his head on the table and clutching his side tightly.

“Percy, are you okay?” Frank asked softly, promptly stopping the on-going conversation between Leo, Jason, and Piper. They all looked at Percy who just nodded his head.

“I don’t feel too good,” he answered.

“Do you want to go to the nurse?” Piper asked softly, placing a hand on Percy’s shoulder.

“I’ll be okay. It’s not too bad. Promise.” Percy hadn’t lifted his head and Nico was afraid it was because his face would show that he really was in bad pain. Nico would hate if Luke had hurt Percy during that tickle fight. “I’ll be back,” and before anyone could say another word, Percy was out the door and limped his way through the hall.

“Something’s wrong,” Leo murmured.

“No, shit,” Nico added.

•••••••

“Percy, are you okay now?” Nico and Percy were sat next to each other in their chemistry class as they tried to finish up their lab.

“Yeah, I’m okay. Just a pain in my side. It’s gone now, I probably just pulled a muscle or something,” Percy avoided Nico’s gaze as he talked and continued to pour a liquid into the flask.

“As long as you’re okay.”

Percy nodded and smiled at Nico. Nico inwardly groaned and just wanted to bang his head against the table for a number of things. How he knows Percy was lying about being okay, how his stupid feelings for the boy never left and because this lab was hard as shit. How does one pour water on this without it getting everywhere? Nico was done with chemistry and was especially done with school.

He gives up. He’s going to drop out and live his life in a dark room, blasting music, and ignoring everyone in that world.

  
  
  



	3. Chapter Three

Nico sat on his couch, phone in hand as he waited for his sister to hurry out of the shower. Bianca was visiting for the weekend like she does every other week. She lives on campus at her college that isn’t that far away, but complained to their father and step-mother that she wanted to live close to her friends.

Of course, Nico’s father gave Bianca whatever she wanted with a compromise that she came home twice a month on the weekends. It worked well with all their schedules and Nico was glad that Bianca didn’t become one of those older sisters that refused to hang out with her younger siblings. Especially when Hazel moved in with them. 

“Nico, are you going to continue staring off into space or are we leaving?”

Nico blinked in surprise and nodded. “Yeah, we can go. Hazel’s waiting outside with Frank.”

The di Angelo siblings found themselves outside with an excited Hazel and an awkward looking Frank.

“So,” Bianca started when she saw Frank. “You’re dating my sister.”

“Bia! Don’t scare him off! You already know him and how sweet he is!”

Bianca grinned and placed her arm on Hazel’s head. “Yes, I do. Now let’s go before the others think we died.”

  * ••••••



Unlike other big sisters, Bianca actually liked hanging out with Nico and Hazel’s friends. She claimed it was only to make sure they didn’t do any ‘stupid teenager shit’, but Nico could see how glad she was to be around them. It was kind of weird, but also...it was their normal. 

What wasn’t normal was Percy and Leo.

“I’m telling you, dude. Today is the hottest it’s been all month and you’re wearing a jacket. Really? You’re going to die from the heat, man!”

“Leo, it’s not that hot. I’m fine! I just like my jacket, that’s all.”

Leo groaned while everyone else rolled their eyes at their banter. “Look, I don’t want you to die because you were stupid enough to wear a jacket when it’s boiling outside. And don’t give me any of that ‘it’s not that hot’ bullshit. Just put your jacket in my bag and everything will be fine.”

Percy sighed and looked up at the sky like it would give him an answer. Maybe it did because Percy finally shed his jacket and handed it to Leo.

“Thank you. Now you have a slimmer chance of melting.”

Percy put his hand on his opposite arm and sighed. “Glad to know.”

“Okay!” Annabeth interrupted. “Now that Leo has wonderfully told us how hot it is, how about we get some ice-cream?”

“Yes, I love ice-cream!” Hazel cheered and was almost bouncing on her feet.

Nico smiled at her as she almost pulled Frank to the ice-cream parlour.

They didn’t have to walk far and they quickly ordered the kind of ice-cream they wanted and sat down at a table outside under an umbrella.

“So, Bianca,” Piper grinned widely as she leaned closer to the dark haired girl. “How’s Thalia?”

Nico watched as his sister’s face began turning red and looked anywhere except Piper.

“Um, she’s good. She visits a lot.”

Percy and Annabeth looked over at Bianca at the mention of their childhood friend. When Thalia had moved, she lived closer to the college where Bianca was now going so they had gotten closer and got caught up when Bianca finally started up school there. They had still texted and Thalia was ecstatic that finally one of her friends would live closer to her.

“We were actually talking about her coming with me the next time I drop by.”

Percy almost fell off his seat when he heard Bianca, and Nico swore he saw a flicker of fear in his eyes. Nico frowned at the teen until Percy caught his gaze. He smiled, a forced smile, and looked away to continue eating his ice-cream.

“Hey, Percy?” Annabeth spoke up. “What happened to your skateboard? You haven’t been riding it lately.”

Percy paled slightly. “It—uh, it broke. Cracked in half.”

Annabeth raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Wait, seriously? You loved that thing, what happened?”

“I-I...I got mad,” he whispered. “Kinda took my anger out on my board.”

“Shit, Perce, what happened?” Nico joined the conversation. He figured if he was going to listen in then he’d at least contribute.

Percy sighed and ran a hand through his hair, allowing Annabeth and Nico to see a glimpse of something red and purple on Percy’s upper arm. The two shared a look before Percy started speaking again, and the two stayed silent.

“Gabe pissed me off again. He said I shouldn’t hang out with Luke because… it doesn’t matter. He just pissed me off.”

“Well could we do anything to help?” Annabeth asked hopefully.

“Yeah, we could get you a new board or something,” Nico suggested.

“It’s fine. I’ll get myself a new one.”

Nico sighed, knowing there was no point in trying to convince him. Percy may not have a lot of money, but he never wanted to use his friends’ money. Nico just wanted to give Percy something because Percy loved skateboarding and hated missing out on doing it for even a day.

“If you’re sure. Percy you can ask us for anything and it wouldn’t be a problem.” The sea-green eyes boy smiled at Nico.

“Yeah, thanks. I know.”

Nico still found it odd. Percy hated even a scratch being put on his precious skateboard and he couldn’t really imagine Percy breaking it on purpose. He supposed if Percy was mad enough, but Nico was still doubtful. His step-dad had to have really pushed his buttons to cause Percy to deliberately break his own skateboard.

He knew Percy was hiding something, he just wanted to know what it was or if he was ever planning to tell the rest of them. Or at the very least, Nico hoped it wasn’t that bad and nothing to worry about. But Nico was worrying, especially after seeing whatever was on Percy’s arm that looked too much like a bruise.

  
  
  



	4. Chapter Four

The weekend went by way too quickly for Nico’s liking. His sister had left late yesterday and promised to return in two weeks with Thalia. They hung out with their parents and played different types of games all weekend.

And now it was Monday and Nico felt

like a walking corpse as Hazel dragged him into the school. Nico rubbed his eyes tiredly until they ran into Jason. Quite literally too, Hazel ran right into him which caused Nico to run into her.

Jason didn’t even blink before he grabbed onto Hazel and started a train of dragging that Nico was at the end of.

“Jason, what are you doing! This is way too fast for Monday morning,” Nico grumbled.

“Something’s wrong with Percy. Again, but he’s not talking to anyone.”

Nico blinked once before he sped up and he was the one dragging Hazel and Jason behind him. “Where is he?”

“Gym.”

“Gym?” Nico whispered confused. Percy always hated gym, not because he had to work out, but because he had to change in front of people and ‘expose more skin’ as he liked to say. Percy likes to wear long sleeves or jackets with pants and despised shorts and short-sleeved shorts. He never told anyone why, but they all figured he just didn’t like showing skin to people.

Percy doesn’t even have gym this year so Nico still didn’t know why he was there anyway.

Nico burst through the gym doors and spotted Percy along with some of their other friends in the back corner of the gym. Nico let go of Hazel’s hand and ran over to Percy.

“Percy, are you okay?” Reyna, Annabeth, and Leo looked back at Nico with confused faces. 

“He hasn’t talked, but…” Annabeth trailed off as Nico got closer to Percy.

He frowned when he saw Percy hugging his jacket to him with tears running down his face, but his expression was blank. Nico hated that look. Percy always had a smile on his face and laughed and told jokes. Recently, Percy has been quieter and more reserved. He always looked...sad and alone even though he was surrounded by friends.

And even now, Percy didn’t even make eye contact with Nico or even showed that he heard him at all. Nico stepped closer to Percy and noticed the dark bruise on Percy’s jaw. Nico lifted a hand and hovered it over the bruise and watched as Percy flinched without Nico even touching him.

Nico let his hand fall back to his side. “Percy, who did that to you?” He didn’t answer, and Nico didn’t expect him to. He only shook his head slightly. Nico sighed and glanced down at his hands and saw his knuckles all bruised and cut up.

“Did you get into another fight?” Percy hesitated, but slowly nodded. Percy’s eyes flickered to Nico and he saw how dull the green eyes had become from their usual brightness. “Hey, it’s alright, Percy.”

Nico studied his face and could see the small fraction of guilt in his face before he pushed himself off the wall and walked away. Nico sighed as the bell rang and he and his friends begrudgingly left the gym and made their way to their own classes.

Fortunately, Nico had this class with Percy and would be able to make sure if he got any better. On the other side, Percy was all the way across the room with his hood up and his head down. 

“Mr. Jackson!”

Percy didn’t move or even flinch when the teacher called him. The class went quiet and looked at either the teacher or Percy.

“Mr. Jackson!” Nico watched as Percy continued to ignore the teacher with his head down, but he knew his friend was hoping the teacher would just leave him alone. The teacher leans down to whisper something to him. Percy only shook his head and the teacher let out a long sigh before he began to teach class like normal.

•••••••

“So, he looks better,” Reyna commented as Percy laughed with Leo while trying to help him build something out of the plastic forks. 

“I don’t know. He still seems...off. I just don’t know what it is,” Nico tilted his head and studied Percy and watched to try to find some kind of difference. He knows that Percy is acting weird, but he just can’t place it. Maybe it’s the underlying pain in his eyes when he laughs or the way he’s sitting too still than normal. It could possibly be the way he kept looking to the doors as if waiting for something. 

It was past the time he normally went to see Luke and Nico thought it was rather odd. Percy always left like he absolutely had to go meet up with Luke and then he suddenly just stops. What changed? Luke is at school today, Nico saw him in the hall. Could Luke have been the person Percy got into a fight with? He wanted to ask Percy or even Annabeth, but it didn’t seem...right. He tried to just go up and ask Annabeth, but something always held him back. He supposed it might be best. 

They couldn’t even try to ask who Percy had gotten in a fight with because he would just evade the question or change the subject completely. It made no sense, and Nico was getting increasingly worried with Percy’s behavior. He could tell that Percy was in pain right now and would have to say that Percy was a good actor except his eyes gave him away. But Nico also knew that Percy was a terrible actor based on some things that happened in the past. So either he was pretending to suck at acting...or Nico was just reading way into it.

A look at Annabeth told him that she was trying to determine what happened too. If only Percy would open up to them. It couldn’t be that bad, right? And if it was, they would help him. That’s what they’re there for. To help each other. But they won’t be able to help him if he doesn’t even tell them what’s wrong to begin with.

So after Percy left ten minutes before lunch ended, Nico left the cafeteria and went in search for Percy, just to make sure he was okay.

“—ine, it doesn’t matter!” Nico paused when he heard Percy’s voice in a vacant classroom.

“How can you say that? Percy, we haven’t—“

“I can’t, Luke! I told you! Why can’t you just try to understand? I’ll—I’ll tell you eventually, but right now I just can’t,” Percy pleaded. 

“Well, I don’t understand. What’s so bad about it, come on.”

“Luke, please let go.”

Nico frowned and looked through the small window on the door to try to see what was going on. He frowned even more when he saw Luke’s hands on Percy’s lower back and one on his waist.

“Why should I?” Luke looked too possessive and gripped Percy’s hips tightly, Nico could see his fingertips pressing into his skin.

“Luke, please. I just can’t right now!”

“Right now, or ever?”

Percy stayed quiet until Luke scoffed and went straight for the door. Nico’s eyes widened and ran to hide behind the lockers. The dark haired boy took a peek and watched Luke wall down the hall, phone in hand as he tried texting.

Nico took his chance and slipped into the room and gently closed the door behind him.

“Percy?” he called out softly. Percy snapped his head to Nico and quickly wiped at his face.

“What are you doing here?” His voice sounded so broken and it hurt Nico’s heart just seeing him this way.

“I came to look for you and saw Luke leave. Percy, what’s wrong?”

Percy shook his head and turned away from Nico. 

“Percy, please. I want to help you. Please?”

“I-I can’t. I’m not allowed to,” he whispered, like he was afraid someone else would hear.

“Who said that? Who said you aren’t allowed to?”

“H-he did. He’ll be mad.” Percy shut his eyes tightly. Nico reached out and gently gripped his hands in his own.

“Who? Luke?”

“No. Not Luke. It’s—“ his eyes suddenly widened like he got caught for something he shouldn’t be doing. “I gotta go.” Percy ripped his hands from Nico and ran towards the door.

“Percy! Percy, wait!” Nico calles out, but the boy was already out the classroom. “Shit.”

  
  
  
  



	5. Chapter Five

Nico kept a good eye on Percy ever since he found him in that classroom. He was worried about him especially whenever he remembered the look of fear in those green eyes. Nico sighed and took another glance at Percy. His hands were fidgeting as he talked with Leo until he suddenly stood up.

“I’m going to the nurse,” he said quickly before quickly walking off, stuffing his hands in his jacket pocket.

“Is he okay?”

No one answered as they all sadly looked back down at the table.

“Has anyone seen Percy?” The voice made Nico mad and seeing his face didn’t help any.

“Stay away from him, Luke.” The older teen looked at him in confusion.

“Why? What’s wrong?”

“Just leave him alone.” Nico didn’t want this guy to bother Percy. What he saw in that room and what he heard. Percy made it sound like Luke was trying to force him into something and Nico was not about to let that happen.

“Nico, Luke, what’s going on?” Annabeth looked between the two with confusion gleaming in her eyes.

“Nothing, Annabeth. But, Luke, you should go.”

The blonde glared darkly at Nico, but nevertheless left the table and then the room entirely.

“Seriously, what was that?”

Nico sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I saw Luke and Percy in a room a while back and Luke was trying to pressure Percy into something. I don’t know what it was, but Percy really didn’t want to do it.”

“But Luke...he wouldn’t do that. Not to Percy.” Annabeth frowned.

“Well, he did. So unless it was just a bad day, I’m not trusting him around Percy.

•••••••

The next time Nico saw Percy, he looked behind him too much and seemed permanently paranoid about everyone and everything around him. He clutched his bag tightly with his hand that his knuckles turned white. He walked quickly through the halls and turned a corner then Nico lost sight of him. He did a three-sixty around himself to find him, but he seemingly just disappeared.

Nico groaned in annoyance and walked to his class where he found the green-eyed boy again. Luke was by his side and gently grabbed onto the younger boy’s hand.

After a while, Percy’s blank face broke into a small smile and finally looked at Luke. Nico couldn’t hear him, but he guessed that Luke finally got Percy to forgive him for something. What Nico didn’t expect was Percy kissing Luke.

His eyes widened and quickly looked away. He wanted to believe that his eyes were just tricking so when he looked again, he was very disappointed to see that it was actually reality. It made Nico’s heart sink and he could feel a heart-throbbing pang in his chest. He took a shaky breath and leaned against the wall beside the door until Luke left the room.

Nico watched him go before entering the room and saw Percy with a weird face. He wasn’t happy or smiled, he looked...terrible for lack of a better word. When he looked at Nico, he smiled slightly and Nico could swear he saw Percy’s eyes brighten at least a little bit.

“Hey, Neeks.”

“Hey, Percy,” he said awkwardly. He forced a smile on his face, but of course, Percy noticed and frowned. His eyes suddenly erupted in realisation and looked away from Nico.

“You saw...didn’t you.” It wasn’t a question. It wasn’t meant to be. Nico nodded, not trusting his voice to answer. “I’m sorry.”

Nico frowned in confusion. Why would Percy be sorry? He shouldn’t be sorry for being with someone he liked.

The bell rang and Nico noticed the way Percy’s whole body seemed to tense up before quickly relaxing. He almost asked what was wrong before the teacher started talking and told them to open their notebooks.

It was halfway through class when Percy put a letter in Nico’s desk. The younger boy glanced at Percy before quickly hiding the note and silently opening it.

_ ‘help me’  _ was written on the note and it made Nico’s blood run cold. Help him from what? What would he need help with. He would have thought Percy meant the work, as Percy normally says that whenever the work is hard. But a look at Percy’s paper told Nico that that was absolutely not the case. It worried Nico that perhaps Percy didn’t mean the work any of those other times, but didn’t want him to find out.

Nico tried to find out what he could need help with until he went back to the day in the classroom. Nico shoved the note into his pocket and abruptly stood up. The class all looked to him, but that was the least of his problems as he grabbed onto Percy’s arm and pulled him out of the classroom. He ignored the teacher's frantic request to get back into the room and didn’t stop or look at Percy until he finally got them to the bathroom.

He checked the bathroom to make sure no one was there and locked the door. Percy was staring at him with wide eyes and his eyebrows scrunched in confusion.

“Why did you bring me here?”

“Percy, what’s going on? With everything; you and Luke, why you’re acting weird, all of it.”

“I-I…” Percy looked away from Nico and sat down in the corner of the bathroom. “I’m...dating Luke.”

Nico tried to keep a blank face as he sat down next to Percy. “You won’t tell anyone what I tell you today, right?”

“I won’t tell anyone anything you don’t want me to.”

Percy nodded, but didn’t say anything. He stayed silent and just played with his fingers. Nico wasn’t sure how long they started there until Percy finally started to talk again.

“Luke hit me yesterday,” he whispered. Nico’s eyes widened and snapped his head to Percy. His face was blank and his eyes were so dark and filled with so much pain. It was like Percy wasn’t even bothering to pretend at all and Nico realised now that Percy was probably pretending to be okay for so long without anyone noticing. “We were at the park and he led me to the woods. I went with him because...he’s my boyfriend y’know and we went to the woods a lot. We went to a clearing and...he kissed me. I didn’t care, it was just a stupid kiss. But then his hands, they…went under my shirt. I told him not to so he went back to kissing me and then he went lower. I-I told him to stop, but then he started…”

He looked at Nico and he understood. “He started to try to unzip my pants, but I quickly got away from him. And he tried to drag me back. I pushed him away and then he punched me. Then he yelled a lot and I yelled back before he did it again. So I ran. I ran so fast and I didn’t know where to go. I c-couldn’t go home and I didn’t want to bother any of you—“

“Hey.” Nico moved in front of Percy and took his hands, gently rubbing his red knuckles. “You can always come to me. Anytime, I don’t care if it’s three in the morning. Just call me and I’ll be there, okay?”

“But you hate getting woken up.”

“I don’t care.” Nico lifted a hand and used his thumb to wipe away a stray tear. He didn’t move his hand as Percy leaned into the touch, like he was starved of it. “I’ll always be there for you. No matter what.”

“You promise?”

“Yeah,” Nico smiled, “I promise.”

Percy gave him a small smile and wrapped Nico in his arms for a hug. Nico blinked before he quickly hugged Percy back.

“Thank you, Neeks.” Nico let the nickname pass for now, but he will get Percy back for that. When he was feeling better.

“What are you going to do now, Percy?”

Percy sighed. “I don’t know. I’m scared of what he’ll do if he found out I told you. Or that I’m with you at all.”

“What? Why?”

Percy stayed silent and Nico could feel Percy go rigid in his hold.

“It’s nothing.” Percy tried to pull away, but Nico held onto his hands. It wasn’t hard and if Percy wanted to leave, he could. His hold wasn’t restricted at all.

“Please tell me?”

Percy studied his eyes and looked away. “He just gets jealous easily, that’s all.” Nico didn’t believe him, but he didn’t pressure him at all. Instead, he sighed and pulled Percy back into another hug.

“Just remember what I said, Perce. Whenever you need anything, whether it’s to talk or get away or you need someone to hide the body, I’ll be there. Whenever you want.”

Nico felt Percy nod and tightened his grip on him.

“Okay.”

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	6. Chapter Six

Percy looked...happy? Nico guessed that was the right word, but something was still off. His smile didn’t seem as bright and didn’t reach his eyes. He kept glancing down the hallway like someone would pop up and hurt him. So Nico asked Annabeth if she knew anything and the blonde could only tell him that when he went to her house, he kept drawing a blank, and had a thoughtful expression on his face.

Annabeth said she asked him about it, but he would only say that he needed to work on his English grades. Nico and Annabeth both get that because Percy currently had a failing grade in that class.

So Nico and Annabeth both watched as Percy smiled and laughed without a care in the world. They shared a look and both knew that was what Percy was going for. He was hiding stuff, and the two could only hope that whatever it was, would go away soon.

•••••••

The next day was like a one-eighty on Percy’s emotions. He wasn’t smiling or laughing. His eyes looked as if he was stuck in his own mind. They all noticed. They even asked, but Percy hadn’t even spared them a glance. He looked as if he was going through the day without even being aware of anything. He kept his head down and didn’t speak the whole day. 

The only emotion Percy showed that day was fear. It was right before his English class when he ran into Nico in the hall. Nico could see the fear in his eyes and pulled him into the bathroom.

“Percy, what’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing. I’ve got to get to class.”

“Percy. Please. What’s going on? You look terrified.”

Percy looked at Nico. “I can’t go there. Not when...not when he’s there.”

Nico frowned. Whoever this person Percy was speaking of, it wasn’t anyone he knew because no one else that they both know was in Percy’s English class.

“Who?”

“Kempler,” he whispered. 

“The teacher?”

Percy nodded and shut his eyes tightly. “H-he threatened me an-and…” Percy nervously looked at Nico before pulling his hoodie collar down so Nico could see dark purple bruises around his neck.

“He did that to you?” Percy nodded and Nico quickly wrapped his arms around Percy.

“Do you want to tell someone? The principal?”

Percy immediately shook his head, eyes wide. “N-no, it’s fine! I’m okay, I just...wasn’t expecting it.”

“Percy, he  _ hurt  _ you. He put  _ bruises _ on you.”

“I’m fine! Promise!” And then he ran past Nico and out the bathroom.

“Percy, what’s going on?” he whispered to himself as the bang rang, telling him he was late to class.

•••••••

“I want to play a game after school today,” Hazel told the group during their break.

“Oh, how about Truth or Dare?”

Hazel grimaced and shook her head. “No, that’s way too overused. What about another game?”

“Never Have I Ever! We can drink with that game,” Leo grinned and wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Nico sighed and shrugged. “If we’re playing at mine and Hazel’s house then I’m in. I won’t get any sleep anyway.”

Hazel smiled and nodded her head at Leo. Piper looked through her phone before telling them that they could go. They went around the group, all of them saying yes to going until they got to Percy.

“Drinking?” was all he said.

Leo nodded, “Yup. It’s Nico’s house, they have alcohol.”

“Saved up in the cellar just for you, Leo,” Nico added.

Percy slowly nodded his head before replying with a small, “I’ll go.”

They continued on with the school day until the bell for school to be out. Nico caught up to Percy before he could leave school grounds.

“Do you want to walk to my house with me?”

Percy glanced at Nico and smiled. “I would, but I want to drop off my bag first.”

“Could I go with you?” Percy hesitated slightly before nodding.

“You’ll just have to wait outside. I don’t feel like staying there too long.” Nico nodded and they both walked along the sidewalk.

“You don’t like drinking, do you?” Nico asked. He didn’t look at Percy when he said it and just looked up at the blue sky.

“Not really. I don’t want to lose myself or do something stupid. I like being aware of what I’m doing.”

Nico nodded in understanding. “I get it. I don’t drink a lot, but when I do I don’t drink too much.”

“I drank before...with Ethan. It tasted gross and I hate the smell.”

“I like fruit flavoured. It tastes better and you barely smell the alcohol.”

Percy looked over at Nico with a frown. “Fruit?”

Nico nodded with a small smile. “I have some at home, we can use those if you want.”

“Could I try it first?”

“Of course.”

When they finally arrived at Percy’s house, the older boy looked at Nico before slowly getting closer to the apartment. “Just, uh, wait here, okay? I’ll only take a minute.”

So Nico waited. Percy was right though, he didn’t take long. It seemed as if he ran up and down those stairs as fast as he could.

“You all good?”

Percy nodded and the pair continued walking to get to Nico’s house.

“Yo, Percy!” Percy flinched at the voice, but grabbed onto Nico’s hand without the person seeing. Nico didn’t question it and instead got to the conclusion that was Percy’s way of saying ‘don’t look at him’. The person called Percy a few more times before cursing and seemingly left.

Percy relaxed and let out a sigh of relief, but he didn’t let go of Nico’s hand. Not that he wanted him to.

“Who was that?”

“Just...someone I don’t really want to talk to.”

“Did he hurt you?”

Percy shook his head. “No, he is— I just.” He sighed. “It’s nothing, he’s no one. He hasn’t done anything to me and we barely even know each other, but he’s sort of friends with Luke.”

Nico glanced at Percy before nodding. “Okay, as long as it’s nothing bad, I suppose.”

“Nothing bad. Promise.”

So Nico nodded and they continued on their way, talking every so often. When they finally got to Nico’s house, Percy hesitantly took his hand from Nico’s and gave him a small smile. 

Nico unlocked the door and stepped inside and closed it after Percy. The sound of laughter alerted them that the others had already arrived. “I’ll go get some of those drinks and I guess you could make yourself at home.”

Nico left Percy and ran down the stairs to the cellar. In movies, people always said that the cellar was haunted and scary. Nico thought the complete opposite. The cellar was like his safe place when he was growing up and he often went down there when he needed to think. He was down here more often when he tried to think through stuff with Percy.

And now he was down there to get some alcohol...how his life has changed. He grabbed onto the fruit flavoured drinks and hurried back up the stairs.

“Perce! I got some.” Percy looked up from where he was seated on the couch, his legs pulled up against his chest.

“Got some what?” Leo asked from Percy’s other side.

“Nothing for you. It’s for me and Percy, there’s not enough for anyone else,” Nico replied and handed a blue one to Percy. 

The older boy took the bottle in his hands and hesitantly opened it after a look at Nico. He slowly brought the bottle to his nose so he could smell it. He immediately frowned and took a quick sip. “I can sort of taste it, but it’s not bad.”

“See? All good. And you only have to drink if you’ve done it so...just hope you haven’t done it.” Percy smiled at Nico and nodded as they all got comfortable on the floor, a bottle in hand.

“I want to go first,” Reyna announced. “Never have I ever set a golf ball on fire.”

“Oh, come on! Why are you targeting me in the first round?” Leo exclaimed before he took a drink from the bottle.

“It’s payback for trying to trip me yesterday.”

“Yeah, ‘trying’. I didn’t actually get to trip you,” Leo crossed his arms.

“Close enough. Annabeth, your turn.”

“Never have I ever stolen from a store,” she said.

Nico, Piper, and Percy all drank then looked at each other. “I’m not saying,” they blurted. 

Jason sighed when it was his turn. “Never have I ever dined and dashed.”

Percy and Piper both drank before high-fiving each other. “Those were good times, huh, Percy?”

“Yeah, we just ran. We ran so fast.”

“And they came running after us, but they were so slow and kept tripping over their feet!” Piper laughed.

“And we never went back there since,” Percy finished, a smile adorning his face. A real smile.

“Well, I guess I’ll go then,” Piper told the group. “Never have I ever fallen into a hole deeper than my height.”

Hazel smiled as she drank along with Leo. “We were running from Frank and we fell into this huge hole! It took a while to get out,” Leo exclaimed, his eyes gleaming.

“Okay, Never have I ever…” Frank began, “had blonde hair.”

Annabeth grumbled as she drank. Jason rolled his eyes as he took a sip from his drink.

The game kept going on as normal, the others going at each other because of things they know they did. It took probably an hour before things got sexual, an hour longer than it normally does.

“Never have I ever lost my virginity,” Leo sighed.

Jason and Piper grinned at each other as they quickly downed a shot. Annabeth and Reyna went red, but didn’t drink. Nico glanced at Percy and was surprised when he saw Percy hesitantly grab onto his drink. Percy must have seen Nico look at him and turned to look at the brown eyed boy. He brought the bottle to his lips and swallowed the liquid, not breaking eye contact with him.

“Woah, I knew about those two lovebirds, but you Percy? Who was the lucky person?”

Percy finally broke eye contact with Nico and turned to Leo. “He’s not lucky and I wish he was dead,” were his words.

“Damn, that bad?”

“He’s bad, yes.”

“Like,” Leo hiccuped, “in general or just at sex?”

“All of it. I hate him. I want him to rot in the deepest pits of Tartarus.”

“Okay, moving on! Percy, your turn.”

Percy sighed and looked intently at his bottle. “Never have I ever been in love with two people in my life.”

“At the same time or it doesn’t matter?”

“Doesn’t matter.”

Hazel nodded and took a sip along with Frank, Leo, Reyna, and Annabeth.

Nico frowned at Hazel before he followed her gaze to the drunk Latino. He hid his smile behind his drink.

“Never have I ever kissed a person,” Nico said. They all drank except for Leo. 

“I guess we're the lonely forever squad,” Leo said sadly.

“Or,” Piper put her finger up as she started giggling, “you two could kiss each other and then you won’t be the only ones anymore!” She laughed a bit more as Nico stared at Leo.

“Yeah, Nico. Give me some sugar!” Leo crawled over to Nico. The dark haired boy leaned back the closer Leo got to him. “Come on, Nico, it’s just a game. Only one!”

Nico frowned, “What—I—fine!” he quickly and barely touched Leo’s lips with his own before backing up.

Leo blinked, “I’ll still count it.” He shrugged and went back to where he was seated.

Another thirty minutes passed before the questions got escalated again. 

“Never have I ever had any type of inappropriate relationship with my teacher,” Annabeth slurred out.

At first, no one drank until Percy picked up his own bottle and took a shot.

They looked at him in surprise. “Damn, I chose that because I thought no one would drink and I’d have to.”

Percy shrugged. “Hey, hey, the rules. You gotta tell us all the juicy details,” Leo pointed his finger and swirled it at Percy accusingly.

“Okay,” he whispered. “You know when I kept leaving the cafeteria early?”

“Yeah, Annabeth said you were hanging out with Luke.”

Percy slowly shook his head. “I had to turn in some things for English because I asked for some extra credit so I didn’t fail. He would give me more everyday and told me to turn them in during lunch and if they were late, then he would...hurt me.” He glanced at Nico apologetically. “At first he’d just touch my hand a little longer than usual. Then in class, he would walk past and touch my shoulder. During lunch once, he asked if I could stay a little longer because he said he’d be able to help me face to face.”

Percy took a deep breath. “He held my hand that day. Then the next day he sat really close to me while he held my hand with an arm around me.”

“What were you doing during all that? You tried to get him to stop, right?” Percy glanced at Annabeth and shook his head.

“I—I didn’t want him to hurt me, not after I had—“ he coughed. “But after that he would turn my face to look at him and would...rub his thumbs across my cheeks. Then...then he kissed me. He told me to keep it secret, don’t tell anyone. He said it would be our secret. So I didn’t say anything. Soon, during lunch he neglected all the work and instead he would lock the door and buy something over the door so no one could see inside and he would just...touch me and kiss me. He would put his hands in my shirt.”

“Did you kiss him back?” Percy didn’t say anything as he stared blankly at the floor. 

“He stabbed me with a pencil if I didn’t.” Percy showed the group his palms that had red and black marks on them.

“Did you guys ever… you know?”

Percy shook his head, a tear fell down his cheek. “I tried to stay in the cafeteria with your guys or with Luke mostly because he wouldn’t ask questions.”

Nico instantly wrapped him in a hug as Percy let the tears fall. “I’m scared, I don’t want to go back,” he whispered to Nico.

“I know, Percy. I know. Well help you, I promise.” Percy nodded into his shirt. Nico looked back at their friends with worried eyes.


	7. Chapter 7

Percy had left about an hour ago saying his step-dad would want him home soon even though Percy was drunk and stumbling out the door. Nico offered to walk him back with Jason, but Percy just shook his head and said he’d be fine.

Percy had texted him when he got home to assure Nico that everything was good.

“Do you think we could just...kill his English teacher?” Nico offered. Many odd looks were thrown his way and made Nico go further into his thinking. “I mean, we just have to follow him home and sneak into his house. I know how to pick a lock, thanks to Percy. We grab a knife or something and just stab him in the throat. We hide the body deep in the woods and put some chemicals together to make the body unrecognisable and bury him. We also get rid of the murder weapon and continue life as normal. Make sure we leave no evidence of being in the house and act like nothing happened.”

Nico was looking at the floor with a thoughtful expression on his face. “Or we could just shred him in the wood shredder. Or act like it was a suicide and wear gloves as we stab him. I know the angle to stab him so it looks like he did it himself.” Nico finally looked up and noticed the shocked faces his friends were making at him.

“You just have all this planned out, don’t you?” Annabeth asked tiredly.

“Of course. There’s many ways to kill someone, the hard part is getting away with it.”

“Well, if I never need to kill someone, I’ll call you, Nico,” Jason sighed and Nico grinned at him.

“I mean, it’s either that or we bribe him with fear and money,” Nico offered. “Though I would much rather kill him.”

“Money,” Piper said immediately. “Between you and I we have plenty of enough to make a trade-off.” 

“Just don’t tell Percy,” Annabeth added, her face serious. “Percy hates letting us do stuff for him so we’ll just have to let him think that the teacher just stopped.”

“Wouldn’t he be happy or at least thankful that he stopped though?” Frank asked in confusion.

“She’s right,” Nico sighed. “Percy would tell us not to worry about him and that we shouldn’t bother ourselves with his problems and to take back any type of money that we gave him.”

“Percy’s too kind for his own good,” Jason commented. He glanced at Leo who was snoring on the couch. “He’s only ever mean to Leo and that’s just a joke.”

“So we’re doing it? Okay, I’ll talk to my dad.”

“I’ll help too,” Nico told her. “I’ve got some spare money so you won’t pay for it all.”

“Leave it to the rich kids,” Jason laughed and fell back to the floor.

********

The next day, Percy had another bruise on his jaw. He had a few scratches on his neck and a band-aid on the side of his forehead. His eyes were blank as he viciously scratched at his arm through his jacket. Nico was standing beside Hazel and they watched him with confused gazes. Percy was by himself which was odd. Percy normally wasn’t early to school.

“Percy!” Hazel decided to call out. He flinched out of his head and looked towards the siblings. A smile immediately broke out onto his face, his eyes lighting up just a little bit as if he didn’t look emotionless only seconds before. As Nico got closer, he saw how Percy’s face was paler and had hardly noticeable bags under his eyes. He kept smiling though as Hazel hugged him. 

“Hey,” he said happily to them. “Tavy is coming back for a few days.”

Nico’s eyebrows went up in surprise. “He is? I thought he was supposed to come next month?”

Percy shrugged, he looked happy just knowing his brother was coming back.

“He wanted to check up on me. He said he was feeling something weird. You know how he says he’s like a psychic.”

Nico nodded. Octavian would often tell Percy not to do something because he felt off about it and Percy would always listen because he trusted his older brother. Nico especially liked it when Octavian came back because it seemed Percy didn’t get hurt when he was there. It was like Octavian was a good luck charm for Percy, and Nico opened it with welcome arms. Even though Octavian could be a dick most of the time to everyone except Percy, Nico was willing to see past that so long as it helped Percy out. Speaking of...

“Anyway, why do you look like you were beat up ten times over?”

Percy flinched slightly and shrugged. “A step on the stairs of my apartment building broke. I was running down and my foot fell through which resulted in me getting my head smacked against the floor,” he laughed a bit and nervously scratched his cheek. 

“So you didn’t get into any fights?” Nico asked skeptically. 

“Nope. No fights, I promise.” Nico nodded, though he wasn’t exactly convinced. Something was off, but he couldn’t place it. The way Percy talked about it and the way he acted, how he seemed nervous, though what for? Nico thought Percy wasn’t telling him the truth, or at least, not the whole truth.

“Okay, but next time you do get into a fight, call me.”

“Why?”

“I don’t want you to go through that alone. You’re always getting hurt, so let someone help you every once in a while, okay?”

“Yeah, Percy, we’re here to help. That’s what friends do,” Hazel smiled nicely at him.

Percy looked between both of them in confusion before he slowly nodded his head. “Okay.”

A smile broke out on Nico’s face before he gently took Percy’s hand and pulled him towards the school doors. “Good, now let’s go before we’re late.”

*******

Percy looked confused when he came out of his English class today. His eyebrows were knitted together with a frown in his face. 

Nico watched as he aimlessly walked through the hall and didn’t even blink an eye when he ran into someone.

“Percy, are you okay?” Nico asked hesitantly when he caught up to the older teen.

“What did you do?” he asked softly, looking ahead of him with a frown still on his face.

Nico blinked before he opened his mouth and closed it again.

“Thanks, Nico,” Percy whispered and quickly ran off through the halls. Nico watched him go with furrowed eyebrows at Percy’s odd behaviour. Nico contemplated going after him, and in the end, his legs quickly took him in the direction Percy went. He heaved a sigh when it seemed that Percy just vanished upon stepping out of the school.

“Nico?” The dark haired boy turned around at the sound of Jason’s voice. “You look...upset? Disappointed?”

“More like frustrated and utterly confused, but those work too,” Nico clarified. He groaned and looked up at the sky like it would tell him all of life’s answers.

“May I ask why?”

“Percy...he said ‘thanks’ to me.”

Jason blinked which caused Nico to groan. “What I mean is after he came from his English class he was acting all weird and like he wasn’t fully  _ there _ . Then he asked what I did and said ‘thanks’ before he ran off. I was expecting more ‘why did you do that, Nico?’ or ‘you don’t have to help me, I’m fine!’ like he always does. Not…that.”

“Maybe he’s just thankful? Maybe he’s finally realising that it’s okay to ask for help.”

“Or he has too many problems on his shoulders and needed someone to get rid of at least one,” Nico suggested in slight realisation. 

“And where’d you come up with that conclusion?”

“It’s nothing, let’s go find Percy.”

Nico grabbed onto Jason’s sleeve and pulled him along.

“Wait, what? You want us to confront him? You remember the last time we did that? He looked scary, dude, his eyes got all dark and his glare was like hell on Earth.”

Nico rolled his eyes at his friend and continued forward. “You think I care about that? He can be angry and yell at us all he wants for meddling, I will still help him. I can’t be the only one noticing that he seems to be keeping things from us.” Nico raised an eyebrow at Jason as he waited for a response.

The blonde sighed and shook his head. “I’ve noticed. I think we all have.”

Nico nodded and stopped in front of Percy’s apartment building.

He let out a deep breath before he dropped his hand from Jason’s sleeve that he wasn’t aware he was still holding on to. He knew which room it was, what floor it was on, but he hasn’t ever been inside the apartment room. Percy always let them stay outside. If it was raining they’d go inside the building and stay on the ground floor. They never really asked him why they couldn’t go in because that look on Percy’s face when they frowned just made them want to take him to a faraway place where no one could hurt him.

“Have you ever been in?” Nico asked Jason.

The blonde shook his head and stepped cautiously up the steps after Nico.

Nico saw Jason frown when he suddenly stopped in front of a door. He looked back at Jason before he hesitantly knocked on the door.

There was a loud crash from inside the house before footsteps could be heard, gradually getting louder before the door swung open to reveal a disheveled Percy. His eyes were wide with surprise and confusion. Nico spotted blood dripping from his hand and his frown deepened.

“What are you doing here?”


	8. Chapter 8

“What are you doing here?”

“What happened to your hands?” Jason asked instead.

Percy looked down at his bloody hands before glancing back up to his friends.

“I dropped a glass and tried to pick it up with my hands,” Percy answered. “What are you doing here?” he repeated.

Jason opened his mouth before he looked down to Nico and motioned for him to answer. Nico heaved a sigh and looked to Percy who looked at him expectantly.

“Are you okay?”

Percy looked taken aback by the question.

“I-um, yeah. I’m...fine. Was that all you had to ask? Or was there another reason?”

Jason and Nico share a look. “Can we come in?”

Percy looked hesitant and looked behind him. “What time is it?”

Nico frowned, but complied and told Percy the time.

“You have an hour, but then you’ll have to leave, not a minute later, you promise?”

Nico frowned in confusion. “Yeah, yeah, we promise. Out in an hour, no later.”

Percy nodded and opened the door for his two friends to enter quickly. Nico watched as Percy quietly closed the door and locked it.

Nico then decided to look around the small apartment. He noticed that there were cleaning products on the floor near where tiny pieces of glass laid. He also noticed a particular smell that was always very faint on Percy’s hoodies like he tried to wash it out, but it continued to cling onto the clothing.

“Is that...cigarettes?” Jason voiced Nico’s thoughts. Percy looked at them and nodded.

“My step-dad smokes a lot inside.”

“Is that why it’s always on your clothes?”

Percy let out nervous laughter. “Yeah, I guess. I try to get it out, but…” Percy picked up a cigarette that hadn’t been lit from the floor. He sighed and flicked it into the trash.

Percy continued to pick things up and throw them away and clean up the place.

“Do you want help?”

Percy shook his head. “I’m fine. I do this every time Octavian comes over because I figured he wouldn’t want to live in the mess this place normally is.”

Nico looked around with a frown. “It doesn’t look too bad now.”

“I’ve become a fast cleaner over the years. Having a drunk living with you helps with clean-up I suppose,” Percy mumbled. “Now are you going to ask what you really want to ask? Hour, remember?”

“Yeah, okay. Uh, Percy, is something else going on? You...were acting weird earlier.”

Percy stopped cleaning over the table and looked at Nico. “I have a lot of things going on, Nico. I guess to really answer your  _ actual  _ question because you can’t seem to say it, I wasn’t mad because I  _ do  _ have a lot of stuff going on. More than I want or need and having that one thing taken away from me was a relief. So I guess I’ll repeat it, thank you and whoever else who stopped Kempler because I have too much to fucking deal with right now. Especially with Octavian coming soon and  _ dammit  _ why can’t I have a normal fucking life!” Percy threw down the rag he had in his hand while Jason and Nico shared a look before running up to their friend. “So thank you, Nico. Thank you.” Nico wrapped his arms around the older teen to try and comfort him.

“Hey, it’s no problem. I’ll help you with any problem you have no matter what it is, if it’s illegal, if you just need help with a school question, if you need me to kick someone’s ass.”

Percy laughed at the end of it and nodded. “I know.”

“Percy. I don’t care what time it is or what it is, just tell me. Or tell whoever you’re most comfortable with, just tell someone.”

Percy looked at Nico before he slowly nodded.

~~~~~~~~~

“So I guess you were right about him having a lot of things he needs to work out.”

Nico scoffed at Jason. “Of course I am. I feel like I know Percy more than anyone else in our little group except maybe Annabeth.”

“You may be right, there. It could be because you’re a creepy stalker who has a massive crush on him.”

Nico’s face flamed red and stared at Jason in shock. “I don’t have a crush on Percy! A-and I’m not a stalker.”

“Sure, of course. Tell that to the heart eyes you send at him when you think no one’s paying attention. I know how you feel about him, it’s not a secret. Well, maybe to everyone else, but not me. And you are a stalker, you have his apartment room number despite him not telling any of us.”

Nico glared at Jason darkly. “I asked him, you dimwit. I walk with Percy occasionally and I just asked him for it. It took two weeks of asking before he finally gave it up, but it was worth it.”

Jason nodded and hummed like he wasn’t believing a word Nico was saying. “Speaking of apartments, is there a reason we haven’t exactly left yet?”

Jason walked behind Nico through the bright halls.

“Something’s been throwing me off since this morning and now I’m just feeding into it.”

“Okay, maybe just directly tell me because I hate reading through the lines here.”

Nico sighed and thoroughly searched up a stairway.

“Seriously, what’s wrong with the stairs?”

“Nothing!” Nico yelled. “Nothing is wrong with the damn stairs, and that's the problem.”

Jason blinked and looked at the stairs. “I’m not following.”

Nico groaned and finally turned around to face Jason while telling him the story of Percy’s excuse this morning.

His story was cut short when loud footsteps came running down the stairs, the person saying profanities until Nico’s name was spilled from their lips. 

“Damn it, Nico, I’m gonna kill you,” he muttered. Nico and Jason shared a look as they recognised Percy’s voice. “Okay, okay. I got…five minutes. I can make it there and back in five minutes.” Percy groaned and a loud thud was heard, like someone punched the wall.

Nico looked at Jason in confusion, but the blonde had the same confused look on his face. Percy often aloud when he was deeply debating on something, but why would he need to debate going somewhere if he couldn’t make it. Or why did he seem frustrated enough to punch the wall. They both jumped slightly when a loud ringtone sounded throughout the halls of the apartment building.

“Tavy? What is it?” It was silent for a few seconds before Percy spilled his apartment number. “You forget it everytime you come here. Wait, you’re almost here? Can you hurry, I have to give something to Nico, but Gabe comes back in five or so minutes.”

Nico frowned before he searched through his pockets just to realise his phone was missing. “Oh, Percy, you idiot,” he whispered.

“Okay, don’t worry about it, I’ll just wait here for you.” Nico sighed before he quickly glanced at Jason and walked around the corner to see Percy staring at the entrance to the building in thought.

“Percy?” Nico called out, looking a bit awkward. Percy flinched at the sound and quickly turned to face them.

“Nico? Jason? Didn’t you leave?”

Nico hesitated before he spoke, “I—uh—yeah, I forgot my phone.”

Percy nodded before he glanced at the door. “Um, here it is. Just, hurry and leave, okay? Gabe said not to have anyone here before he gets back.” Percy glanced at the door again like he was waiting for something to happen to it as he handed Nico his phone. Nico frowned as Percy seemed to get more antsy.

“Are you sure you’re gonna be okay?”

Percy nodded. “Yes, I’ll be  _ fine.  _ Now, you should really go.”

Nico and Jason said their goodbyes hesitantly before Percy watched them go. Nico took one last look back as Percy seemed to force a smile on his face. He sighed and followed Jason out of the building. Nico felt apprehensive about this whole situation. It was almost like leaving would be a bad thing to do, yet staying would only make matters worse. So the question is, what option should he take? Nico could always stay in the shadows and make sure everything was fine, but he couldn’t very well just sneak into Percy’s apartment room either. Nico sighed for what seemed like the hundredth time today while effectively earning Jason’s attention.

“What is it, Nico? You don’t want to stalk him even more do you?”

Nico glanced at Jason awkwardly.

“Y-you weren’t  _ seriously  _ thinking of that, were you?” When Nico didn’t say anything Jason laughed for a few seconds. “And you said you aren’t a stalker. Now, tell me, what is it that you feel the need to stalk our friend?”

“Okay, just dropping the stalking thing,” Nico glared at Jason, “I’ll just call Octavian instead.”

“Do I want to know how you got his number?”

Nico shook his head as he dialed in the number. It rang for a few seconds before he picked up.

“What do you want?” he questioned in a bored tone. “You better know that my brother needed to give you something.”

“How far are you?”

“What? A few miles, why do you want to know?”

Nico groaned. “Look, I know you hate me, but Percy was acting weird about his step-dad coming back and I needed to know if you know anything?”

It was silent on the line for a bit. “I only know that Perseus can’t have people in the apartment for reasons he hasn’t divulged to me.”

Nico nodded despite knowing Octavian couldn’t see him. “And that’s it? Just a strict step-dad?”

“That I know of, yes. And while I’m speaking to you, I might as well ask. Has Perseus been in a lot of fights lately? He told me he would stop, yet I know he’s terrible at keeping his promises.”

“He told me the same thing a while ago, too, but he’s always got bloody knuckles and bruises and cuts all the time.”

Nico heard Octavian sigh from the other line. “I’ll take that as a no. I’m almost there so you won’t have to worry your head about my brother.”

“I’ll always worry about him, but now that we got that cleared, you better make sure he doesn’t get hurt while you’re here.”

“Of course, I will. Now leave me be so I can finally get there and not listen to your vexatious voice.”

Nico scoffed, but hung up the phone anyway. “Right when I think he’s even slightly  _ decent  _ he has to go and insult me. Dick.”

Jason decides to ignore Nico and instead ask if he got any new information.

“Not really. He made it seem like Percy just didn’t want to disobey his step-father and we talked about how Percy is still getting into fights despite telling both of us that he would stop.”

“Sometimes the fight finds you.”

“But everyday?” Nico questioned. “I know for a fact that it’s not during school, I would have either seen it or heard about it from every student in the school talking about it.”

“Stalker,” Jason coughed. Nico glared at his friend.

“So then who is he getting into so many fights with outside of school? It doesn’t make sense.”

Jason stared off into the distance, looking deep in thought. “Hey, I never got to ask, but why were you so mad at Luke when he came around looking for Percy?”

“I’m really not supposed to talk about it,” Nico mumbled. “I just don’t like the guy with Percy.”

Jason nodded along. “He does seem to have some ulterior motive when it comes to Percy.”

Nico’s head snapped towards Jason in confusion. “What do you mean?”

Jason frowned at Nico’s reaction. “I’ve seen them together a lot, I’m not that stupid to not know when someone is only with them for one reason that doesn’t have anything to do with them. And Luke is not with Percy because he has any romantic feelings for Percy.”

“Then what do you think he wants?” 

Jason shrugged and sighed. “I’ve heard a lot about Luke from Thalia and from what she tells me, Luke was always into all those drugs and alcohol and sex. He wasn’t one to have a non-sexual relationship and we both know that Percy is squeamish about those things.”

Nico looked down at the ground. “I think you’re actually right. Based on what I saw and talked about with Percy, I can definitely agree that Luke is most likely only trying to use Percy.”

Both boys sighed again. “Percy has too many people trying to get him to do things he isn’t fond of.”

“It makes me want to kidnap him and lock him in my basement,” Nico says. 


End file.
